Cooke out of Giro d’Italia due to tendonitis

Australian sprinter Baden Cooke hoped to play a part in this year’s Giro d’Italia, especially as the Saxo Bank team for the Tour de France is likely to be based around general classification riders rather than sprinters, but his chance of taking a stage win has evaporated with his withdrawal from the race.

Cooke has been experiencing tendonitis and the problem hasn’t improved in recent days.

“Baden has shown increasingly good form in the Giro and the riders on the team are naturally sorry to lose such an experienced and powerful teammate,” said his directeur sportif Dan Frost. “We sure could have benefited from his strength this coming week but with the pain he is suffering now, it is just pointless to continue the race.”

The 2003 Tour de France green jersey winner has worked hard since joining the team at the start of the year, hoping to get back to his best form. He played a team role in the spring Classics but also picked up some solid results in the early season, including third and fourth on stages of the Tour of Qatar, as well as 14th in Gent-Wevelgem. He was tenth and eleventh in stages of the Giro.

The Saxo Bank team was boosted by Chris Anker Sorensen’s victory on yesterday’s first mountain stage. The young Dane is coming back from a broken collarbone but showed great form yesterday. He has said that he will try to chase another stage win in the race.

Saxo Bank’s big riders are currently competing in the Tour of California, an important race for its sponsors.